March 15

What happened that day?

• 2011: Beginning of the Syrian Civil War.
• 1991: The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany comes into effect, granting full sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany.
• 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.
• 1986: Collapse of Hotel New World: Thirty-three people die when the Hotel New World in Singapore collapses.
• 1985: The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
• 1978: Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.
• 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act.
• 1961: At the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, South Africa announces that it will withdraw from the Commonwealth when the South African Constitution of 1961 comes into effect.
• 1952: In Cilaos, Réunion, 1870 mm (73 inches) of rain falls in a 24-hour period, setting a new world record (March 15 through March 16).
• 1945: World War II: Soviet forces begin an offensive to push Germans from Upper Silesia.
• 1943: World War II: Third Battle of [Kharkov](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharkov): The Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
• 1941: Philippine Airlines, the flag carrier of the Philippines takes its first flight between Manila (from Nielson Field) to Baguio City with a Beechcraft Model 18 making the airline the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name.
• 1939: Carpatho-Ukraine declares itself an independent republic, but is annexed by Hungary the next day.
• 1933: Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss keeps members of the National Council from convening, starting the Austrofascist dictatorship.
• 1931: SS Viking explodes off Newfoundland, killing 27 of the 147 on board.
• 1927: The first Women's Boat Race between the University of [Oxford](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford) and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.
• 1926: The dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected President of Greece without opposition.
• 1922: After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.
• 1921: Talaat Pasha, former Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire and chief architect of the Armenian Genocide is assassinated in Berlin by a 23-year-old Armenian, Soghomon Tehlirian.
• 1917: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty.
• 1916: United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
• 1906: Rolls-Royce Limited is incorporated.
• 1892: Liverpool F.C. is founded.
• 1888: Start of the Anglo-Tibetan War of 1888.
• 1877: First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.
• 1875: Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.
• 1874: France and Viet Nam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.
• 1864: American Civil War: The Red River Campaign: U.S. Navy fleet arrives at Alexandria, Louisiana.
• 1848: A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
• 1820: Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.
• 1819: French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel wins a contest at the Académie des Sciences in Paris by proving that light behaves like a wave. The Fresnel integrals, still used to calculate wave patterns, silence skeptics who had backed the particle theory of Isaac Newton.
• 1783: In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d'état never takes place.
• 1781: American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Court House: Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat a mixed American force numbering 4,400 in a Pyrrhic victory.
• 1672: Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.
• 1564: Mughal Emperor Akbar abolishes "jizya" (per capita tax).
• 1493: Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.
• 1311: Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V, Count of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.
• 1147: Conquest of Santarém: The forces of Afonso I of Portugal capture Santarém.
• 933: After a ten-year truce, German King Henry the Fowler defeats a Hungarian army at the Battle of Riade near the Unstrut river.
• 856: Michael III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, overthrows the regency of his mother, empress Theodora (wife of Theophilos)) with support of the Byzantine nobility.
• 493: Odoacer, the first barbarian King of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, is slain by Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, while the two kings were feasting together.
• 351: Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
• 280: Sun Hao of Eastern Wu surrenders to Sima Yan which began the Jin dynasty.
• 220: Cao Cao, Chinese warlord and penultimate Chancellor of the Han dynasty passes away.
• 44 BC: Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
• 474 BC: Roman consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso celebrates an ovation for concluding the war against Veii and securing a forty years' truce.